Music to THRAK by...

One of my favorite music groups is King Crimson. You tend to either love this band or hate this band. As a musician I find King Crimson's music invigorating, thought provoking, and frequently inspiring. It also makes great music to progam by. (intensely)

Late Breaking News! - A New King Crimson Album: The ConstruKction Of Light

King Crimson's newest studio album was released in the US on May 23rd, 2000. You can buy it through Robert Fripp's remarkable music company, Discipline Global Mobile, as well as many other fine music stores, such as Amazon.com.
There was a little good natured mis-understanding between Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew over a track which in the long run did not make it onto the actual album. The essence of the issue was that Robert felt that the track as recorded was not really representative of King Crimson as a whole, but was more of an Adrian Belew track. The track is very similar to the Coda: I Have A Dream, was meant as a sort of intro to Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part IV, and actually has essentially the same name and words as the coda (though a very different sound) - I Have A Dream. Adrian has made the track available through mp3.com along with a discussion regarding the mis-understanding over the song at his official site.

Download or listen to the mp3 (free!) of "I Have A Dream" as originally recorded for the album at mp3.com

ProjeKct X is what is currently being described by Robert Fripp as the "other" side of King Crimson. Whereas King Crimson composes music and develops its music from the composition outward; ProjeKct X starts from improvisation in its musical developments. A sample "bonus track" of ProjeKct X work was included on the ConstruKction of Light CD named "Heaven and Earth". A corresponding ProjeKct X album named "Heaven And Earth" was released at approximately the same time as the "The ConsruKction Of Light" album through DGM.

A new live 3CD set from King Crimson named Heavy ConstruKction from the ConstruKction of Light tour in Europe 2000 was recently released. I can't recommend this release highly enough! The live versions of these tracks really have some pleasant surprises - some favorite sections of mine are the improvs from Discs 1 and 2 (Munchen, Bonn and Offenbach), a nice grooving version of Cage (originally released on the VROOOM EP), a practically danceable section in The ConstuKction of Light on Disc 1, and the versions of Deception of the Thrush on Discs 2 and 3. Disc 3 is largely improv with a bit of additional later mixing - while I enjoy these improvs quite a bit, I think I prefer the unaltered bits on the first two discs better. Disc 2 also contains around 40-45 minutes of concert video in Windows Media Player format, and is also very enjoyable. This set is remarkably cheaply priced - US$20 (plus S&H) via DGM! You can also purchase Heavy ConstruKction by following this link to Amazon.com.

For those real collector's out there, there's also a tasty new studio sessions CD out available through DGM's King Crimson Collector's Club - Nashville Rehearsals, S.I.R. Studios May 1997 (KCCC #13). This material was the last recorded work of the "Double Trio" before they went on to experiment with the various ProjeKcts described below. Little germinations of many of the pieces on the ConstruKction of Light CD can be heard on this disc. This disc is only available to KCCC members through DGM.

Living in The ProjeKcts

Since King Crimson's last tour in '96 or so the band formed "fractals" of crimson-ness in 4 different sub-groups which consisted of:

ProjeKct One:

Bill Bruford

Robert Fripp

Trey Gunn

Tony Levin

ProjeKct Three:

Robert Fripp

Trey Gunn

Pat Mastelotto

ProjeKct Two:

Adrian Belew

Robert Fripp

Trey Gunn

ProjeKct Four:

Robert Fripp

Trey Gunn

Tony Levin

Pat Mastelotto

Of the four ProjeKcts, only ProjeKct Two has had a 'studio' release of material on CD called "Space Groove", though Robert Fripp's record company, Discipline Global Mobile (DGM), has prepared live recordings from the various ProjeKcts for release. Four CDs have been released of live material from ProjeKct One, ProjeKct Two, ProjeKct Three and ProjeKct Four - only available individually through import from a Japanese label, Pony Canyon, that King Crimson is affiliated with.

Following are descriptions of the 5 CDs that are currently available of the ProjeKct material and links from which you can purchase them.

Following the release of the four live CDs through Pony Canyon, DGM produced a box set of all four of the live CDs at a very reasonable price ~ US$35, as well as a compilation CD of tracks from the four live CDs. Below are links to where you can purchase the ProjeKct Box Set and the compilation CD:

King Crimson: The Deception Of The Thrush - A Beginners' Guide To The ProjeKcts (compilation) (DGM link) (Amazon link)

New 24-bit remastered versions of "In The Court Of The Crimson King", "In The Wake Of Poseidon", "Lizard", "Islands", "Larks' Tongues in Aspic", "Starless and Bible Black", and Red!

Robert Fripp has recently been working on remastering the early King Crimson recordings to take advantage of new analog to digital transfer techniques which enable eliminating the majority of background noise (hiss, hum, etc.) that was normally unavoidable at the time of the original recordings. All of these remastered versions are superb, and if you're fortunate you can even get limited edition "mini-LP" gatefold versions of the CDs. All of the remastered CDs include nice booklets with pictures and details of the group at the time. New remasters of "Discipline", "Beat" and "Three Of A Perfect Pair" are due out early 2001. Below are links to the remasters currently available:

Note! You may wish to verify with Amazon with the above links that you are indeed actually ordering the recently 24-bit remastered versions and not the older releases. Otherwise you can certainly order them through DGM as well (which are the only versions they are selling), though direct links to these titles are not available. Note that the mini-LP gatefold versions in the US are currently out of stock, though are still available through import. There's some talk, however, of printing some more of the limited editions for the US, though no definite dates as yet.

Other links

Of great interest to King Crimson fans is a King Crimson Collectors Club sponsored by DGM that releases roughly 6 CDs per year of rare archive recordings ranging from live performances of KC from '69 to the present to studio outtakes from the VROOOM EP.

Robert Fripp has started a new venture called Bootleg TV by which many archival and brand new concerts will be made available and some *viewable* via the web. Virtually all of the 2000 King Crimson tour (Europe at least) is slated to be made available via Bootleg TV starting in June.